Some computing systems may use a number of techniques to decrease or manage the consumption of power. Some systems may automatically place the processor and other components in a power saving state, such as an idle state or standby state, during periods of inactivity. For example, some systems may include a wake on LAN (local area network) feature that may wake the processor from its power saving state when activity is detected on its LAN interface.
Network interfaces are now available for a variety of different networks, such as Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) such as 802.11, Wireless Personal Area Networks (WPAN) such as Bluetooth, Ethernet networks, and the like. In some cases, it may even be possible for a computing system to operate over two of these different networks at the same time. For example, a computer may communicate with a printer, for example, over a WPAN or Bluetooth link or network while simultaneously communicating with an 802.11 Access Point (AP) via a 802.11 WLAN network.
While some systems may include power management features in general, processing of events for different network interfaces until now has been uncoordinated. Such an uncoordinated approach of servicing events may reduce the time for the host processor to be in a power saving state and may increase the amount of power consumed by the system. A need may exist for an improved technique to service multiple network interfaces.